Recently in Tropical

Recipes and photos reprinted with permission:

Sue Doeden’s All About Food Blog

http://www.areavoices.com/sdoeden/

In her own words, from All About Food Blog:

There are two things in my world that tell me spring is officially here. One, the call of the loons wake me from my morning slumber as they float on the river just outside my window. That just happened Wednesday morning. Two, the small juicy yellow-skinned mangoes are ready to purchase by the case at my favorite little Asian market in Fargo. Done. Spring is here.

This year the mangoes are from Mexico and are called Adolfo (Ataulfo). I've seen some that look similar that are called Champagne mangoes. All I know for sure is that these small mangoes are the sweetest and juiciest I've ever tasted.

If the mangoes you bring home from the store look like the ones pictured above, let them sit out at room temperatue until the skins get all wrinkled with a few little brown spots. Then you will know the mangoes are sweet and ready to eat.

I decided to prepare a savory mango soup for a Caribbean-themed dinner I was planning to attend. To add some coconut flavor to the finished soup, I tried to recreate a coconut custard I recently tasted.

While I was working in Minneapolis last week, I had the opportunity to have dinner at Heidi's, a cozy little restaurant near 50th and Penn. The food was fantastic. I was especially smitten by my entree. Sauteed halibut on a Haupia cake was that evening's special. The haupia cake was made of coconut custard that had been cut into a plank, coated with Panko and fried.

I wanted some of that coconut custard to top my hot mango soup.

I cooked up some custard using coconut milk, coconut cream and a little curry paste for some kick, thickening the mixture with cornstarch.

The mango soup is very easy to make, but the real key is to use the ripest, sweetest and juiciest mangoes you can get your hands on. I've had an opened container of tamarind paste/concentrate in my refrigerator for ages and am always trying to think of ways to use it up. It's very tart, so 1 teaspoon in this soup is just right. It balances so nicely with the sweet mangoes.

Top each bowl of hot soup with a small scoop of Coconut Cream Custard. Garnish with a curl of lime. Serve. And then, just listen to all those satisfied ooohs and aaaahs and sighs.

It's a little bit sweet, a little bit spicy.

At the Caribbean dinner it will be served just before Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Black Bean Salsa and Curried Citrus Rice, all prepared by our host. I'll be sure to give you a report on the whole meal.

I plan to make the soup again while my favorite mangoes are still available and serve it with some spiced and grilled shrimp.

Coconut Cream Custard

• 1 1/2 cups water, divided
• 8 ounces cornstarch
• 1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk (not the Lite style)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 of a 16-ounce can of Coco Casa Coconut Cream
• 1 teaspoon curry paste

Using a fork, mix cornstarch with 1 cup of water, stirring to dissolve cornstarch. Set aside.

In a medium saucepot, mix coconut milk, sugar and remining 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat. Pour cornstarch mixture into the hot liquid, stirring constantly with a fork or wire whisk. When mixture is quite smooth, return to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in cream of coconut and curry paste. Set aside while preparing cooling dish.

Line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper or waxed paper. Pour coconut custard into lined dish. Press a piece of waxed paper over the top of the custard so it is completely sealed. Chill in refrigerator until firm.

Custard can be made the day before and kept in the refrigerator until time to serve the soup.

Smooth and Savory Mango Soup with a Coconut Cream Dollop

• 5 medium-sized white onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 6 very ripe Adolfo (Ataulfo) mangoes, peeled, seed removed, chopped
• 1 serrano pepper, seeded, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• Lime zest for garnish, if desired

In a soup pot, melt butter. Saute chopped onions in butter until tender but not brown. Add chopped mangoes and minced serrano. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add chicken broth. Bring soup to a simmer. Cover pot and simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in tamarind paste, salt and pepper.

Puree soup in blender in several small batches. I always cover the lid of the blender with my kitchen towel before I turn it on, just in case that hot soup spurts out of the top.

To serve, ladle hot soup into serving bowls. Place a small scoop of Coconut Cream Custard on each serving. Garnish with a curl of lime zest, if desired.

Coconut Cream Banana Mango Muffins

Recipe and photos reprinted with permission:

Sue Doeden's All About Food Blog

http://www.areavoices.com/sdoeden/

One of the best things about blogging is meeting other talented bloggers through social networking sites.  There are some terrific blogs out there and the more we can acknowledge great recipes and creativity by re-posting, the more we will support visiting traffic to blogs.  Sue Doeden's blog "All About Food" is a fun and personable website.  This recipe looked so good, I had to repost it.  Please visit her site for more mouth-watering recipes!

In her own words:

My favorite banana muffins in the whole world have always been the ones my dad called his own. I don't remember a time that he ever made them, but still, he called the moist muffins his banana muffins.

With pride in his voice, he would tell us the same story each time we ate the muffins. He was just a young boy when he invented the recipe in his mom's kitchen. He mixed them up and baked them himself. Apparently, though, when he got married, he passed the banana muffin-making over to his wife. And so, for years, my mom made my dad's banana muffins. My brother and I, along with my dad, would eat the muffins up in no time. They were delicious.

I'm not so sure my dad would approve of me playing around with his recipe. I'm in the midst of mango madness. I couldn't stop myself from stirring some chunks of fresh mango into my dad's banana muffins. Since I had half a can of cream of coconut in my refrigerator, leftover from the coconut cream custard I made for the mango soup (see previous post), I decided to stir some of that into the batter, too.

The new version of my dad's banana muffins took on a tropical flair. They are still moist and full of great flavor. I've discovered the blacker the bananas look, the more pronounced the banana flavor will be in the baked muffins. When the last of a bunch of bananas starts to look too dark to eat, I put them in a zip-top freezer bag and pop them into the freezer. When I'm ready to start making muffins, I take them out of the freezer and let them thaw a little bit. I cut off the top end of each banana and squeeze the mushy banana right into the mixing bowl. Easy.

Next time I make the muffins with cream of coconut, I will stir in some chopped macadamia nuts and maybe some shredded coconut.

If you don't have cream of coconut on hand, you can leave it out and increase the sugar from 1/2 cup to 1 cup.

Be sure the mango you use is ripe, juicy and sweet.

And remember -- they're my dad's banana muffins (with a tropical twist). I'm pretty sure he'd like them.

My Dad's Banana Muffins (with a tropical twist) or

Coconut Cream Banana Mango Muffins

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cream of coconut (such as Coco Casa)
• 2 eggs
• 2 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh lime juice
• 1 cup vanilla yogurt or sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ripe mango, chopped (1 cup)
• Turbinado sugar or sparkling sugar for sprinkling on muffin tops

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.

In small bowl, combine yogurt or sour cream and baking soda. Mix well and set aside.

In mixing bowl, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat until incorporated. Add cream of coconut and blend. Add eggs, mashed bananas, vanilla, lime juice, and yogurt and baking soda. Mix well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.  Stir just until all the dry ingredients have disappeared into the batter. Stir in mangoes.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins to 3/4 full. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with some turbinado sugar or sparkling sugar. Bake in preheated 400-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from muffin tins and cool on wire rack.

These muffins freeze well.

Tropical Coconut Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter, melted and cooled

1/3 cup organic cane sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

5 very ripe bananas, coarsely mashed

6 oz. canned crushed pineapple, drain liquid

5 oz. canned cream of coconut (not coconut milk - however I have used coconut milk when I couldn't find cream of coconut and I added a 1/4 tsp of vanilla)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup of roughly chopped and toasted macadamia nuts

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a standard loaf pan
• Toast the nuts in the oven for about 10 minutes
• Cream butter, 2 of the mashed bananas and sugars in a large bowl.
• Mix in eggs.
• In a separate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients
• Mash remaining bananas thoroughly in another bowl (3rd) and fold in pineapple, cream of coconut, and vanilla.
• Fold both banana mixtures from other two bowls slowly into dry ingredients - don't over mix!
• Fold in the nuts.
• Pour batter into the pan
• Bake for about 55-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out mostly clean, rotate pan a few times while baking (Cooking time may vary depending upon your oven... my oven is commercial grade and tends to cook faster than others... just keep an eye on it :-)
• Let the bread cool on a rack and turn out of the pan after about fifteen minutes. Let cool almost completely (approximately 45 minutes) before slicing. The bread will be very dense and moist.

• Lightly dust with confectioners sugar before serving.